We wanted to end our week-long vacation to Blue Ridge, GA. on a high note, so what better way to do that than to go white water rafting? We drove to a little town called Copperhill, TN. where the Ocoee Olympic Whitewater Center is located and to ride the middle section of the Ocoee River. Our guide's name was Murp and he was one cool dude alright. He knew the river like the back of his hand, so I felt confident that we were going to have a blast. We got in a raft with a nice couple from Florida and off we went for a 1 1/2 hour adventure.
I couldn't take my camera along with us because it surely would have ended up in the water. So, the following photos are ones I took the next day as we went back to watch other rafters and new guides in training. Let me add here that our rafting trip didn't disappoint! It was so much fun! We got taken down Class 3 and Class 4 rapids. At one point, Murp told us to paddle a certain way and when we hit one of the rapids, our raft spun around in a circle about 12 times. Good stuff! Another time, he had us paddle into one rapid where the front end of our raft was completely submerged under water. I kept thinking, 'We're all going to die!' About that time, we popped out of the vortex and were on our way, once again.
This shows the strong current of the water...
This was a popular point to see rafts flipping over...
Here's the view from the bridge over the Ocoee...
There were plenty of talented kayakers on the water, too...
The girls and I enjoyed watching all the brave souls go by on the upper section of the Ocoee...
A long day out and about gets her every time...
I do have to a funny story to share with you. When we got home later than day, we couldn't find Bella, anywhere. We had blocked off the stairs that went down to the basement, so we didn't think she'd be down there. We looked everywhere for her and even went outside and called her name, repeatedly. We came back inside and the girls went down to the basement and I could hear them saying, 'Bella, what in the world?' I ran downstairs to see what was going on. Somehow, she made her way down to the basement and had climbed atop the card table and was trying to figure a way to get down. There is no telling how long she'd been up there before we came home...
On our last evening in Blue Ridge, we went to a nice dinner downtown at a restaurant called Southern Charm. Chris and the girls had catfish/shrimp and I got the chicken pot pie. They, also, brought out homemade biscuits and apple butter that were beyond mouth-watering! Here's the four of us before we left for dinner...
In all honesty, we couldn't have had a better family vacation. I love spending time with my husband and my girls more than anything. Time together always goes by much too fast. However, in this moment, my heart is full and in the whole scheme of things, that's all that matters.
